Onstage: Durango

Second-generation
Korean Jimmy Lee (Andrew Cristi) is building up his vocabulary in
anticipation of applying for college in a few years. He’s a bright,
engaging kid, always looking for bigger and better words to say what he
means. As he and his older brother Isaac (Peter Kim) differ about
taking a road trip with their Korean immigrant father Boo-Seng Lee
(Thom Sesma), Jimmy gropes for a word to describe why he feels it’s
important. He finally lands on it: “auspicious.”

In
Julia Cho’s new play, Durango, getting its Midwestern premiere at the
Cincinnati Playhouse, “auspicious” not only describes the road trip on
which she sends her three principal characters, it is certainly
applicable to this script by a relatively unknown playwright.

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This is a
story with a lot of real-life texture: Boo-Seng, in the opening scenes,
loses his job with a tech company where his cultural differences have
made him an expendable employee — especially given his age, 56. But his
pride prevents him from sharing his loss with his sons, who he’s been
raising as a single parent since his wife’s death a decade earlier. Now
he knows his only path to success is through them. “Where did I learn
to want so little for myself?” he asks. See review here.